Really, do you need a description? This is a blog. This blog is MY blog, not YOUR blog. That means it's MY thoughts, not YOUR thoughts. (Sing to the Woody Guthrie tune of your choice.)

4.22.2008

Look Who's Sucking Bandwidth Now

No it's not P2P and all those evil file pirates out there that are consuming the majority of internet bandwidth. It's regular users accessing streaming video sites like Netflix and YouTube. Wow. I bet Comcast feels stupid now for having paid all those bodies to attend the FCC Net Neutrality hearing! They should have just blocked YouTube! After all, if governments can do it, why shouldn't Comcast have the same rights?

But Comcast claims to have turned over a new leaf. Instead, they and other ISPs may now start looking at throttling the speed of these evil internet junkies. Only in America do we spend resources trying to punish people who are acting within the law and their contracts. The ISPs obviously feel entitled to act like the credit card companies and change user terms and conditions whenever they feel like it in their own favor. After all, consumers don't have rights, only money that corporations are entitled to take. But they should think twice before opening this can of worms.

If too many internet junkies go into speed withdrawal, we may end up with a DSM-IV condition for internet streaming media addiction. Since no one is responsible for their own behavior anymore, once we've identified this group of deviants/victims, someone will inevitably follow up with class action lawsuits against ISPs. Because surely the ISPs created web addictions in many of these users by providing unlimited data access accounts without clearly labeled warnings in the first place?

I'm still not clear how this all jives with the ISPs other plans to provide priority routing to traffic from commercial organizations that pay for the privilege. Surely YouTube and other major streaming media providers like them will pony up the dough?